K5
Steam, Skies, Seas, and Savages The K5 Universe is based primarily around the steampunk and dieselpunk genres, focusing on the events following the War of Vile Men, a historical term for the K5 equivalent of the First World War. The K5 Universe has within it several primary settings: Sky-Islands: Propped up by large deposits of Cyanite, these floating chunks of stone, dirt, and landscape provide homes for the altitude-inclined. Using airships fueled by Cyanite and armored balloons, Sky-sailors forge lives for themselves, hunting the colossal creatures of the air and selling their valuable parts. Massive beasts lurk amongst the clouds, and many of the world's powerful nations have forged aerial navies to hunt down and kill them. Combat in the sky is no rare sight, either, as sky-pirates prey on merchant vessels and civilians, perpetually fleeing from the battleships of the government forces. Cities and states have grown from the large floating chunks of earth, forging independent cultures and identities amidst the turmoil of the modern age, preferring to isolate themselves more and more from the people underneath them in search of peace and quiet. Much of the skies are unexplored, and many maps become unreliable after a few months to a year, making travel dangerous and unpredictable. Storms fueled by the Neutralite pollution of the War of Vile Men lash out at the cities and airships, rending metal from wood and flesh from bone, adding further to the lethality of this new frontier. The Scorched Badlands The Continent of Westerland is the new hemisphere of the globe, discovered and colonized shortly before the War of Vile Men. Some people blame Westerland's discovery for the war's beginning. The continent is a massive stretch of land, 5,000 miles wide at its maximum, and has proven to be the world's most recent attraction. Cities along the easternmost coastline act as junctions and epicenters of population as railroads and civilization steadily encroach further and further west. Impeded by indigenous peoples at every turn, the colonizing governments turn to arming its citizens to maintain law and order. This frontier is an equivalent to a steampunk Wild West, where outlaws rob trains on mechanical horses and where large plantations enslave the native population. Industry is rare here, seen only in relatively small amounts along the coast, where the bustling cities and huge harbor complexes clog the inlets with oil and refuse of unknown origins. People move to Westerland in search of fame, fortune, a new start to their lives, or something they were promised by their governments. Westerland, like most of the rest of the world, was not left unmarred by the War of Vile Men, and bears many of the wrecks and scars of the conflict. Cities are left in ruin, forests and farmland left burned and blackened, and the wrecks of whole naval fleets still sit, rusting, in the waters along the coasts. The Known World The only real familiar land left in K5, where civilization first sprouted its first plume of steam, and its first oil pump. This far larger continent, called is home to all of the major nations, and was the primary battleground for the War of Vile Men. Most of the western sections are horribly scarred by the conflict, with many nations in total ruin and many more left without much of an economy. Most advisors believe that if the Sky-Islands did not exist, or if Westerland was not discovered when it was, the world would have quickly descended into an economic spiral. This continent is the most heavily populated, although the war succeeded in wiping whole nations bare of human life. Nations of the World: # Westgaardian Royal Empire # Kodian State # Jexan Union # Raiki Shogunate # Novus Imperium Romanum # Union of Birmingham # Republic of Truseau